Public health actions to mitigate long-term consequences of child maltreatment

Child maltreatment (CM) is highly prevalent and one of the most injurious conditions that children may experience. Because it is often-clandestine, it is difficult to assure that existing prevention and treatment mechanisms reach those in need. CM’s consequences may take a long time to be recognized and expressed. We discuss the need to increase public health actions when the person reaches adulthood to mitigate the consequences of CM.

We propose three intervention targets to alleviate CM-related difficulties in adults: emotion regulation, social functioning, and self-concept. By enhancing awareness and facilitating access to these interventions and using technology-based strategies, we expect this approach to benefit affected persons. It may also reduce the risk for transmission of CM consequences across generations.